There are food processors of the type broadly set forth above having a working bowl or vessel with a motor driven shaft projecting vertically upwards through the bottom of the bowl on which various selected rotary tools can be engaged to be driven by the shaft for performing various food processing operations as may be desired by the user. A detachable cover is secured over the top of the bowl during use. This cover includes a hopper or feed tube which has a mouth that opens downwardly through the cover into the top of the bowl. The food items to be prepared are placed in this feed tube and then are manually pushed down through the feed tube into the bowl by means of a removable pusher member which is adapted to slide down in the manner of a plunger into this feed tube. For further information about this type of food preparing apparatus, the reader may refer to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,892,365--Verdun and 3,985,304--Sontheimer.
The rotary tools in food processors are being driven by relatively powerful motor drive arrangements and have the capability of causing serious injury. For this reason, a bowl-cover safety feature is conventionally incorporated into these units. This feature requires that the cover be firmly locked onto the bowl in normal position before the motor will start. This requirement is achieved by making the cover, which locks rotationally to the bowl, with a projection or member which causes the closing of a switch carried in the housing only when the cover is properly locked into its normal position on the bowl. Depending upon the type of food processor, this cover projection may actuate the switch directly or through an intermediate linkage.
Another safety feature is the provision of an upright food-receiving hopper having a feed passageway which extends down through the cover. This hopper is deliberately designed in terms of shape, moderate cross-sectional area of the food feed passageway and height to make it almost impossible for a normal adult inadvertently to insert a hand sufficiently far down into the hopper to touch the rotating tool located in the upper portion of the working bowl. In addition, the pusher is provided for feeding food items down into engagement with the food processing tool.
Other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description in conjunction with the drawings and from the appended claims.